A couple of years ago I heard an awful presentation — in a church, on a Sunday morning — about the evils of Islam. The presentation was created by Norm Geisler, an evangelical apologist and theologian. Geisler has written lots of good stuff (I use his Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics often), and though he’s a bit to the right of me on many things, he’s certainly in general a substantive voice. But this presentation was so dumb it was embarrassing. It included all the nasty quotes about jihad in the Q’uran, without any discussion of Islamic history or varying Islamic religious and cultural traditions. It even included side-by-side photos of Mother Theresa and Osama Bin Laden, with the commentary that Mother T is the logical result of Christianity while the Big O is the logical result of Islam. How cartoonishly idiotic.
Geisler’s presentation was made in several area churches over the course of a long weekend, and the local paper of record ran a story about it. We Christians came across as bigoted and angry. I wrote a letter to the editor about it, stating that not all evangelicals think so monolithically about Islam, that Geisler’s presentation had embarrassed me, and that some of us really do respect much about Islamic culture and history. I also said something at the end of the letter about nevertheless standing with other evangelicals in desiring that Christians should proclaim the truth about Jesus to Muslims, as we believe salvation ultimately only is found in Christ. Unfortunately, they cut out that last little paragraph before they published the letter, so I came across looking like some kind of lefty ecumenicalist. Some of the folks at my church were not happy. I got hate mail from one guy (who didn’t have the guts to sign his name to his nasty-gram). I also got, curiously, a couple of “thank you” letters from Muslims.
Anyway, I digress. All of this is to say that there’s an excellent, excellent article (yes, two excellents) in this month’s Christianity Today about how we should relate to Islam, by Warren Larson, a professor of Muslim Studies at Columbia International University in South Carolina. I wish I could link it, but I can’t because of CT’s annoyingly greedy policy of not making links available until every possible copy of the magazine is sold. Among other good things, Larson takes John MacArthur to task for a lousy, bombastic stance towards Islam in a recent book. (IMHO, MacArthur is one of the most highly overrated public figures in evangelicaldom). Larson concludes that “we Christians must discuss irreconcilable differences with Muslims, but we should also recognize similarities, bridges, and common themes. There is a place for ‘unveiling’ Islam, provided we do it with sensitivity, understanding, and careful research.”
Amen, and amen again. If you’re interested in relating to Muslims as a follower of Jesus, and formulating a Christian public policy concerning the real threats posed by radical Islam, read Larson’s piece.